FEH catchment descriptors

FEH (Flood Estimation Handbook) catchment descriptors provide the catchment characteristics and rainfall data to support the methods outlined in the Flood Estimation Handbook to estimate river flows.  Catchment descriptors were originally published in 1999 alongside FEH and have been updated and maintained by UKCEH since.  There are two sources of catchment descriptors:

1. National River Flow Archive (NRFA) Peak Flow Database - FEH Catchment Descriptors are provided by UKCEH for all Peak Flow river gauges in the UK

2. FEH Web Service - A paid for service by UKCEH which provides catchment descriptors for all ungauged river catchments in the UK with an area greater than 0.5km²

Flood Modeller is compatible with v13 and earlier versions of the NRFA/UKCEH Peak Flow database.  With v13, there are two sub-versions, 13.02 which is in the older format and 13.03 which is in a new format.  As well as the usual inclusion of new years of data, the following format changes have been made in v13:

1. All files name named with gauge name as well as number, e.g. "002001.xml" becomes "002001-helmsdale-at-kilphedir.xml"

2. New "IHDTMEASTING and IHDTMWESTING" values has been added to the XML scheme on row 16/17

3. The AMAX (.am) and POT (.pt) files now have data in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss format rather than dd mmm yyyy

Hydrology+ has been enhanced to ensure it can seamlessly utilise data from either format of the Peak Flow database.

Hydrology+ supports access to catchment descriptors from both NRFA and the FEH Web Service as described in this article. Viewing catchment descriptor locations and extents is described in this article. 

Imported FEH catchment descriptors provide parameters integral for UK hydrological (ReFH2/WINFAP) analysis. 

From this window, the following options are available:

To make use of catchment descriptors in analysis, a calculation point needs to be created.